As semiconductor devices evolved throughout the 1970's, they were designed with greater circuit density and thus, became more sensitive to static electricity. The more sensitive semiconductor devices were discovered to be highly susceptible to an otherwise invisible phenomenon; electrostatic discharge (ESD). At that time little was understood about the nature of the threat that ESD held for semiconductor devices.
The rapid discharge of high voltage static charges was found to cause irreparable physical damage to the increasingly minuscule circuitry of the newer generation semiconductor devices. To protect the semiconductor devices from ESD as they are handled, shipped and stored, packaging containers were redesigned.